Introduction:

Staphylococcus epidermidis as an opportunistic pathogen and its ability to form biofilm has become an emergency situation.

Objective:

To identify biofilm-producing Staphylococcus epidermidis as a cause of urethritis in males. Study performed throughout 2019 in the Microbiología Lab of the Centro Provincial de Higiene, Epidemiología y Microbiología Lab in Guantánamo.

Method:

An observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out at the aforementioned lab, envolving a total of 48 male outpatients with a clinical diagnosis of urethritis certified by the family physician, attended in the Microbiology laboratory with their respective urethral discharge culture indication. The variables studied were as follow: coagulase, catalase and oxidase enzyme production test, growth of mannitol salt agar, novobiocin sensitivity, biofilm production and antimicrobial resistance. The sampling results were introduced in a database and processed with the software SPSS version 11.5.

Results:

Biofilm-producing Staphylococcus epidermidis was identified as the cause of urethritis in the 48 male patients involved in the study. This microorganism showed cero or low resistance to ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin, amikacin, gentamicin, amoxicillin-sulbactam combination, cotrimoxazole and tetracycline.

Conclusions:

Staphylococcus epidermidis emerges as a common opportunistic pathogen in male patients with a clinical diagnosis of urethritis, with significant resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics not combined with beta-lactamase inhibitors.

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